Althouse: "A pair of surveys released on Thursday suggest that just one in 10 uninsured people who qualify for private health plans through the new marketplace have signed up for one..."

March 6, 2014

"A pair of surveys released on Thursday suggest that just one in 10 uninsured people who qualify for private health plans through the new marketplace have signed up for one..."

"... and that about half of uninsured adults has looked for information on the online exchanges or plans to look."

56 comments:

Hagar said...: Something needs to be done about these ungrateful wretches.; 3/6/14, 4:16 PM
Birches said...: It's almost as if this law was passed without any study or thought as to why people don't have insurance (or why some women don't use birth control--even if it's free)...

Color me astonished!; 3/6/14, 4:23 PM
Forbes said...: At one point on the road to Obamacare it was claimed that 15% of the public were uninsured. That percentage was derived from surveys that asked people if they had been without insurance at some point during the past 12 months. The total, of course, was inflated by people changing jobs and temporarily uncovered--as much as 1/3 of the total. At the real level of 10% of the population uncovered, it would total 31 million. That 3.1 million (signing-up) equals that one-in-ten characterization sounds right. Wonderful that the entire healthcare insurance system has been turned upside down for 1% of the population.; 3/6/14, 4:26 PM
Bob Ellison said...: What percentage of people who qualified for health insurance in 2013 had their plans canceled on 12/31/2013?

Pretty close to 100%.

Like me.; 3/6/14, 4:28 PM
Bob Ellison said...: I should say: who had private health insurance.

Just so you dumb lefties don't try to pull a fast one.; 3/6/14, 4:29 PM
Bob Ellison said...: I should also say: who had private health insurance that was not government-subsidized by the employer health-insurance-expense subsidy.

Just so you dumb lefties don't try to pull a fast one.; 3/6/14, 4:30 PM
khesanh0802 said...: I am willing to bet that, when we have enough data, we will find that 60 - 70% of those insured through the exchanges are people who were insured previously. McKinsey's survey is leaning in that direction.

Obamacare is quietly -for the moment - turning into an even bigger mess than we unbelievers had predicted. The latest extension of old policies by HHS is, I suspect, an acknowledgement that there is tremendous buyer resistance in all markets.

A little anecdotal evidence: The woman who owns the Hardware store in town is tapped into a pretty good web of knowledge about what's happening with health insurance locally. Her stories include all the nightmares of cancellation, higher premiums, higher deductibles and unaffordable options that we see in the press. She and her husband had their insurance cancelled because it was "substandard" (he has a chronic condition that had been adequately covered by their prior plan). She says that her new premium is over $1100 per month and her deductible is such that she will have to spend over $23,000 in premium, co-pays and deductible annually before she receives any benefits. She legitimately asks why she should purchase insurance.; 3/6/14, 4:33 PM
n.n said...: The reason is risk management and priorities. Given the choice, people will not only avoid medical insurance, but they will choose more productive outlays of their capital as they deem fit.

The survivor tax (i.e. Obamacare) not only does not address affordability and availability, but it is a comprehensive exploitation of every American who survived planned parenthood. If the Democrats had any sense, then instead of increasing government revenue, they would focus on sustainable economic development. If they had any integrity, they would admit defeat, when in order to reduce the problem set, they chose to promote a population control protocol.

Well, baby steps. I suppose.; 3/6/14, 4:36 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: That 3.1 million (signing-up) equals that one-in-ten characterization sounds right.

Why say that? wouldn't a large chunck of the sign-ups be people whos policies were cancelled.; 3/6/14, 4:38 PM
David said...: A large number of people who did not have insurance were in that position out of choice or neglect. As best as I can tell, no serious effort was ever made to find out what that number actually was. The Democrats were too busy lying and exaggerating and the Republicans were too busy opposing.

This problem goes away if everyone is covered automatically by the same plan. Other problems appear, but this one goes away.

Obamacare is the classic government program screwup. Unrealistic assumptions, bad data, unquestioned assertions, confusion, obfuscation, incompetent or dishonest budgeting, bungled execution, no accountability, bullshit projections, cost overruns and overblown expectations.

Not totally surprising for a program that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans wanted in the first place.

Expect the calls for single payer and uniform policies to renew shortly after the midterm elections. This no matter who wins or loses those elections.; 3/6/14, 4:44 PM
SteveR said...: I finally enrolled, but have not yet paid (I will as soon as the BCBS website works) With subsidies its not too bad, but pre ACA I had a plan that was twice as expensive but actually covered things before shelling out $12,700. My CPA and BCBS rep I talked to thought it would fail within two years; 3/6/14, 4:44 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: Ah. Here's my answer from the article.

of people who had signed up for coverage through the marketplaces by last month, just one-fourth described themselves as having been without insurance for most of the past year.

So 75% are people who had insurance.; 3/6/14, 4:45 PM
test said...: Bill, Republic of Texas said...
So 75% are people who had insurance.

That's 75% of signups. But 90% of the previously insured made the first payment, while only 50% of the previously uninsured did. So 15.625% of the insured were previously uninsured. Given that they are missing their enrollment targets by millions they ended up improving coverage by less than a million. All while vastly increasing costs for everyone else and setting us up for a massive budget deficit.

It would have been difficult to conceive a plan with a worse outcome.; 3/6/14, 4:56 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: It would have been difficult to conceive a plan with a worse outcome.

Heck of a job, Barry!; 3/6/14, 4:58 PM
David said...: SteveR said...
I finally enrolled, but have not yet paid (I will as soon as the BCBS website works) With subsidies its not too bad, but pre ACA I had a plan that was twice as expensive but actually covered things before shelling out $12,700. My CPA and BCBS rep I talked to thought it would fail within two years

What's failure? We have plenty of still active government programs that failed long ago. But the ocean of debt and higher taxes keeps them afloat.; 3/6/14, 5:00 PM
Real American said...: I guess we need more re-education camps.; 3/6/14, 5:16 PM
ganderson said...: The main health care problem is not really a health care problem at all- it's people who live messy disorganized lives. O-Care does nothing to solve that problem, and may make it worse.; 3/6/14, 5:27 PM
alan markus said...: Real American said...
I guess we need more re-education camps

Debra Wasserman Schultz is on that:

Can't believe I sat through the 50th vote to undermine a law that's working. This is why we need to take back the House in Nov!

Are you drunk?’ Wasserman Schultz whines, claims newly-delayed Obamacare is ‘working

New campaign slogan: "You have to keep us Dems in office now to find out in 2017 how Obamacare will really affect you!"; 3/6/14, 5:27 PM
Greg Hlatky said...: One in ten: the new benchmark of success.; 3/6/14, 5:37 PM
SteveR said...: What's failure?

Well if you can't see that now, stay tuned. This isn't Head Start.; 3/6/14, 5:49 PM
Oso Negro said...: What is still startling to me is that so many otherwise decent, intelligent Americans fell for the man who is the purveyor of this monstrosity (hello, Professor). Even worse is to reflect on the fact that he was re-elected.; 3/6/14, 6:08 PM
alan markus said...: Remember the day of the website roll-out and Inga was trolling with comments like this about her Facebook friends?

Inga said...
"Just checked our family health plan on the new "exchange" (which is a price comparison website). It's $40 LESS than our current plan, same insurance carrier, same plan. Yessss!"

Wisconsin Health Insurance Exchange

Posted by a friend on Facebook.

10/1/13, 7:02 PM

Inga said...
"On a personal level...my daughter has a pre-cancerous condition and could not afford health insurance that was offered to her from her place of employment because of it...now she is covered...so the only worry we have now is if this pre-cancer condition blossoms...but at least she'll be
able to get help."

" My 19 year old son, has a separation in his atrium/ventricular valve and needs to be seen regularly by a cardiologist. He will now be able to receive medical care. Hallelujah!"

From two more friends on Facebook.

10/1/13, 7:46 PM

href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6329595&postID=7445571918247938188">How's that healthcare .gov website working for you?

Also this gem:

Inga said...
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, whatever will they do when the sky hasn't fallen? Make another crisis so as to make it appear that every single thing that has Obama's fingerprints on it looks like a failure. It's gotten very old and it's going to be reflected in 2014 and certainly in 2016.

10/1/13, 12:39 PM

Yes, it's going to be reflected in 2014 and certainly in 2016 - just not the way Inga thinks it will.; 3/6/14, 6:10 PM
alan markus said...: Messed up the HTML tag on my last comment:

Hows that healthcare.gov website working for you?; 3/6/14, 6:12 PM
test said...: alan markus said...
Remember the day of the website roll-out and Inga was trolling with comments like this about her Facebook friends?

Apparently we're to believe she was connected to half the population able to connect and sign up. Miraculous.; 3/6/14, 6:20 PM
chickelit said...: Many of the unsigned are illegal aliens or people with serious IRS arrears. They are waiting for the whole enchilada before stepping out of the shadows.; 3/6/14, 6:32 PM
PB said...: They know they'll actually get better emergency care if they have no insurance than if they have Obamacare. This is important because Obamacare forces you to use emergency care more because so few doctors are on the networks.; 3/6/14, 6:39 PM
Michael K said...: The insurance nightmare is one step. The next will be a wave of doctor retirements. That's not a problem, though, because you don't need a doctor.

My ex-wife, a close friend, has chronic lung disease from smoking for years (she's quit) and had a serious episode last month. She went to her pulmonary doc and was seen by his PA, a woman. My ex was a nurse practitioner with two BSs and a Masters in nursing. The PA told her she didn't need antibiotics and sent her home from the ER.

She was back worse in three days and was admitted. Three more days on IV antibiotics. The chief of Medicine at the hospital (well known) visited with her to get her story. She finally was discharged improved.

Get ready for the brave new world of healthcare.

"A poll of more than 3,000 doctors last fall indicated 44 percent will not participate in the Obamacare exchanges, and O’Reilly said he couldn’t see how it could possibly work, mentioning an increased amount of “boutique services” in the medical industry.

“You’re just making speculation,” Emanuel said. “They will take Obamacare insurance.”

He's very sure. Just like he was sure the web site would work.; 3/6/14, 6:41 PM
Illuninati said...: My wife was in the high risk pool and now with Obama care she has a regular insurance policy. Big Whoop. The premiums on the regular health insurance policy are higher than they were in the high risk pool and her deductible is $1000 higher. So no the sky hasn't fallen yet.

The trade off for this expensive regular insurance policy is that government officials have taken away over her healthcare along with everyone else's health care in the country.; 3/6/14, 6:44 PM
Peter said...: If this were a private company bringing a new product to market, the effort would be a colossal failure.

The company would write off sunk costs, fire/demote the idiots who approved spending money on this failure, and it would move on.

Then again, a company would have invested in some market research before bringing a costly product to market.

Government apparently is different, as it can afford to throw nearly unlimited funds at the failures.

And, government can mandate that you buy what they want you to buy.; 3/6/14, 6:48 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Obamacare f-ed up 100% of us to try and help 15% of us.

Here is my analogy. If Obamacare was a plumbing repair business and you called it to fix your dripping faucet, when they got done, you'd be lucky if your house was still standing.; 3/6/14, 6:58 PM
mccullough said...: This is why I am not a liberal.; 3/6/14, 7:10 PM
Luke Lea said...: Medicaid for all!; 3/6/14, 7:12 PM
khesanh0802 said...: @Luke Lea

As long as you pay for it.; 3/6/14, 7:26 PM
alan markus said...: I'm looking forward to seeing a well-documented study of what the start-up costs per previously uninsured enrollee will be. Just looking around, I see $634,000,000+ for the website, 70,000,000+ for the navigators (aka "2014/2016 Election Democrat Party Field Crew"), and 4,400,000,000 to the states for setting up their exchanges and advertising. Have not found cost for HHS administrative expenses other than website or federal costs for their own advertising.

Now,if 3.3 Million have enrolled, that is a cost of about $1550 per enrollee. If 11% of those 3.3 Million were previously uninsured, that is 363,000 people. Dividing those costs by by 363,000 comes to $14,000+/previously uninsured Obamacare enrollee.; 3/6/14, 7:29 PM
avwh said...: "That 3.1 million (signing-up) equals that one-in-ten characterization sounds right. Wonderful that the entire healthcare insurance system has been turned upside down for 1% of the population."

I'll be damned. All that fuss about the 99% and 1%?
Turns out it meant something, after all.

It's just that the 1% are the only beneficiaries of this monstrosity, and we're the 99% getting screwed by Obamacare.; 3/6/14, 8:14 PM
Levi Starks said...: Why on earth would any healthy person agree to give up their hard earned money for something that they've been assured is a right?; 3/6/14, 8:19 PM
Levi Starks said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/6/14, 8:20 PM
Drago said...: LOL

As predicted by anyone with a brain (excluding all leftists):

Obama admin is not tracking the single most important metric they used to sell obamacare: The number of uninsured persons signing up for insurance.

I. Shit. You. Not.

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/03/06/just-one-in-10-uninsured-who-qualify-for-obamacare-exchange-plans-have-signed-up/

ACA: “That's not a data point we are really collecting in any sort of systematic way”

Accountability.

Transparency.

Openness.

Competency.

LOL

Yes. Of course.

Forward...we just can't tell you the direction, how far we've gone, when we'll get there, what will have to be done to get there, etc.

Just give us all the money, all your most private information....and trust us.; 3/6/14, 8:27 PM
RecChief said...: How can you say ObamaCare was meant to insure the uninsured and neglect to track that data?? What's the point?; 3/6/14, 9:14 PM
Seeing Red said...: It will be mandatory to take Medicaid/Medicare patients if you want to practice in the US. Just wait.; 3/6/14, 9:19 PM
chickelit said...: How can you say ObamaCare was meant to insure the uninsured and neglect to track that data?? What's the point?

From somewhere, Stanley Ann Dunham still looks down on us and smiles.; 3/6/14, 9:23 PM
Anonymous said...: At this point you have to be evil or stupid to vote for a Democrat.; 3/6/14, 9:25 PM
n.n said...: Michael K:

It will be the lawyers' work to conduct triage. Wasn't that his wife's function in Chicago, legal triage?; 3/6/14, 9:31 PM
PB said...: Yes. This was thought-through thoroughly.; 3/6/14, 9:45 PM
John henry said...: Bob Ellison:

I think you have it backwards. The employer health insurance is not subsidized to the employer.

Yes, it is tax deductible to the employer just as every other element of compensation is tax deductible. If your employer gives you a company car for personal use, it is deductible to them as an employment expense. If they pay for your vacation days, ditto. Christmas turkey? Subsidized day care? Ditto and so on,

Health insurance is subsidized to the employee, not the employer. Everything else the employee receives fromm the employer as compensation, they must declare as income and pay tax on.

Health care is the sole exception. The non-taxability represents a subsidy to the employee.

In a perfect world, it would be taxable to the employee just like anything else.

John Henry; 3/6/14, 9:51 PM
Michael K said...: "It will be mandatory to take Medicaid/Medicare patients if you want to practice in the US. Just wait."

I'm waiting for the day when we have to go to Indian reservations to see the doctor.

It would be hilarious. I hope you all have one at a convenient distance from your home.; 3/6/14, 9:52 PM
Fritz said...: "At this point you have to be evil or stupid to vote for a Democrat."

"and" works too.; 3/6/14, 10:29 PM
Anonymous said...: Burn it down and scatter the ashes.; 3/6/14, 11:29 PM
Rusty said...: Obamacare is quietly -for the moment - turning into an even bigger mess than we unbelievers had predicted.

Any one who understands economics and markets will have told you it wouldn't work.
Then there is the part about forcing people to do something they don't want to do.; 3/7/14, 6:11 AM
Birkel said...: Car insurance does not cover regular maintenance like oil changes or filter replacement. That is because those expenses are predictable and regular. Nobody needs insurance for predictable expenses.

The same is true for health insurance.

People cannot overconsume catastrophic insurance.; 3/7/14, 9:39 AM
Molly said...: In some important respects, ACA has been very successful. It has by all reports been successful in adding people to medicaid roles who previously qualified, but were too proud or ignorant to enroll in that program. And it has expanded eligibility so that many who were previously not eligible became eligible and enrolled.

And Medicaid then becomes the entry way for recipients to be introduced to numerous other government benefits they may be eligible for.

So ACA is attaining its objectives in this important respect.; 3/7/14, 9:44 AM
Paul said...: Obama says... "The beatings will continue until morale improves."

And so it is with Obamacare. And morale I doubt will EVER improve.

Hope for BIG change in 2014.; 3/7/14, 12:49 PM
Paul said...: Yea Molly, true. It is a 'success' on one area.

It's like the Titanic. They did at least take 3 hours to sink.

So while Obamacare will bankrupt us all, at lease some did sign up!; 3/7/14, 12:51 PM
deepelemblues said...: "It's like the Titanic. They did at least take 3 hours to sink."

They also managed to save about one-third of the passengers, or a little over 3 times the percentage of uninsured Obamacare covers at the moment. If you trust that poll. I suspect the % of uninsured now insured thanks to Obamacare is more like 4-5% at best.; 3/7/14, 2:13 PM
Forbes said...: Bill, Republic of Texas said...
That 3.1 million (signing-up) equals that one-in-ten characterization sounds right.

Why say that? wouldn't a large chunck of the sign-ups be people whos policies were cancelled.

3/6/14, 4:38 PM

Of course a large part were those that had cancellations. I was merely saying it sounds right--I should've been snarkier. The road to Obamacare has been full of half-truths, obfuscations, and deceptions--if not outright lies.

And of course if the number of cancellations that account for sign-ups is in the 2/3s to 3/4s range, then the true disaster of so few uninsured signing up is revealed.

Apparently disrupting 100% of the population to address a problem of 1% isn't embarrassment enough for the Obamabots.; 3/7/14, 2:15 PM
jr565 said...: Winning!; 3/7/14, 5:14 PM